UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
DEPARTMENT BULLETIN No. 1413 
Washington, D. C. 
August, 1926 
COCOA BY-PRODUCTS AND THEIR UTILIZATION AS FERTILIZER MATERIALS ' 
By G. P. Walton, Associate Chemist in Charge, and R. F. Gakdiner, Assistant 
Chemist, Organic Nitrogen Investigations, Fertilizer Resources Division, 
Bureau of Soils 
CONTENTS 
Page 
Introduction 1 
The cacao bean and its products-, — 2 
Source 2 
Primary products 3 
By-products 4 
By-product cocoa press cake and 
powder 5 
l'roduction 
Yields of cacao butter and press 
cake_ 7 
Disposal of the press cake 
Composition and properties 10 
Present investigation 12 
Practical value of by-product 
cocoa cake 20 
Tage 
Solvent extracted or defatted cocoa 
residue 28 
Nature, origin, and production- 28 
Utilization of extracted cocoa 31 
Cacao (or cocoa) sbells •">:! 
Nature of the by-product 33 
Quantity of commercial shells 
produced 34 
Utilization 34 
Composition and agricultural 
value of shells 34 
Results of the present investi- 
gation 37 
Summary 39 
Literature cited 41 
INTRODUCTION 
As a result of an interesting economic situation, related to the 
existing great demand for cacao butter, there are now in the United 
States three trade residues produced from cacao beans where formerly 
the husks or shells were the only regular by-product of commercial 
importance. The two recent arrivals in this field are by-product 
cocoa press cake and solvent-extracted cocoa, and their advent in 
important quantities has created renewed interest in the utilization 
of cacao by-products. All three by-products are available at prices 
which put "them within the reach of the fertilizer industry. 
One of these potential fertilizer materials, the by-product cocoa 
cake, is nothing less than the press cake remaining from the manu- 
facture of cacao butter. The best of it is almost identical in com- 
position with the ordinary powdered cocoa of commerce. Usually, 
however, a lower grade of cacao bean is used when production of 
1 Cocoa, cacao butter, etc., products derived from the seeds of tbe cacao tree, are not 
to be confused with coconut, coconut oil, and copra, obtained from the coconut palm, 
even though coconut is often written " cocoanut." " Cocoa " as a corruption ot * cacao 
probably resulted from an earlv popular confusion in which the coconut was credited 
With being the source of cocoa and chocolate. Cacao "beans" are small seeds, about 1 
inch long and three-fifths of an inch broad, whereas the familiar coconut as nearly as 
large as a man's head. 
86091°— 20 1 
